Lucys Crab Shack Quilts

Of course, I've been holding on to this darling Lucy's Crab Shack fabric for a while. Because it's just so darn cute, I kept waiting for the perfect project to use it on. Finally one night I just yanked it down from my shelf and went to work with no actual pattern in mind. Midway through, I got the idea to make some wonky stars out of the white number fabric that came in the line. And of course to separate the colors. I couldn't have planned it better! I just love the way they came together.

 For the boy version, I quilted it using a small loopy star pattern. It measures 40.5" x 35.5".

For the girl version, I quilted bubbles. This one is just a bit smaller than the other one, measuring 35.5" x 35.5". 

These quilts are for sale in my ETSY shop. 

I'm linking up with: Just Between Friends, Richard and Tanya Quilts, Someday Crafts, Crazy Mom Quilts

Baby Love Quilt

I wanted to show you my Baby Love quilt from Camille Roskelley's book Simply Retro, now that it is all quilted and bound. The fabric is Happy Go Lucky by Bonnie and Camille and I quilted it in a baptist fan pattern which I love. 

When I was trying to get the quilts all completed for Jana's quilt-along, I was moving so fast, that it was all I could do to get a top pieced together. My goal for this year is to go back through each of them to get them totally finished (as well as every other WIP that I have waiting). 

  

I love making baby quilts because they are so much fun to gift. I was able to give this to my friend's darling new baby and have loved seeing a few of her IG photos all snuggled in tight. 

This was such a fun and easy quilt for a baby, it makes me want to sew a million more.

I'm linking up over at Crazy Mom Quilts, The Girl Creative & Making The World Cuter

Customer Quilt Catch Up

As I was looking through my pictures, I realized I haven't shown quite a few of the customer quilts that I have quilted in the past few months. So here are just a few...

Nancy's: 

This is the last of the three that Nancy pieced for her daughters. I love the soft colors that she used and the nine patch pattern on point. So pretty!

It's quilted with the wave on wave pattern that we did on this chevron quilt. I really love the way it looks. 

Jessica's:

 This darling quilt was made by Jessica for her cute daughter's bed. It was also her first time piecing a quilt. Didn't she do a great job?

We did a cute bubble pattern on this quilt to help break up the long rows of fabric. Love it!

Judy's:

Judy made this sweet quilt for one of her grandbabies. It really is such a sweet one. I love the fabric that she used and all the pinwheels, especially on the border. 

 She wanted a plain meander as to not distract at all from the piecing. It worked out perfectly. 

I love working with customers to find the perfect quilting for their project. It's so much fun to me to see it all come together. If you have any projects that you need quilted, shoot me an email or give me a call. I'd love to work with you too!

I'm linking up with: Skip To My Lou, Sugar Bee Crafts & Sew Much Ado

Baby Love Quilt - Take 2

In Camille's book, Simply Retro, she takes one block and enlarges the whole thing to make a baby quilt. So really it's the same as the last quilt I showed, only super-sized.  It makes for some quick quilt piecing but I'm not sure if I *love* it. What do you think? Maybe after I get some great quilting on it I will change my mind. 

This fabric is an oldie but a goodie. It's a Riley Blake fabric and I think it's called Wheels (I may be wrong on that, sorry). I love it for a baby boy though and since this is a baby quilt....well, you know.  

 I'm linking up at: Jana's quilt along and Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday

Baby Love Quilts - Simply Retro

 We're still following along with Jana's quilt along for the book Simply Retro by Camille Roskelley. This quilt is titled Baby Love and yes, we are loving it! It's a really quick one to piece together, which makes it nice to make for baby gifts. 

 This one above was pieced by my mom, Laurie. She is an awesome piecer, you can see how all her seems line up perfectly and how flat her quilt lays on the ground, especially compared to mine, which is below. I really should have squared up all my blocks, which I normally do, but I decided to try to skip that step to make it go just a little faster. Big mistake, oops ;)

 The fabric that we used is Happy Go Lucky by Bonnie and Camille. I love all of their fabric lines, so bright and cheery! The best part is seeing how different our quilts look just by using different fabrics from the same line. 

If you want to check out more of the quilts from the book Simply Retro, there is a flicker group set up or you can check out Jana's quilt along.

I'm linking up with: Crazy Mom Quilts & Jana's Quilt Along

Simply Retro - Retro

If you've been following along with Jana's quilt along, You'll know that I am just getting this quilt in just in the nick of time (much like my high school homework, only this is much more fun)! This quilt along has been a good motivator for me to work on my projects a little more quickly than I am used to, which is great. It's fun to have finished mostly finished projects rather than stacks of  fabrics waiting to be pieced together. I just pulled my quilt off the long arm machine, in fact, I wasn't sure if I would even get it pulled off tonight so I snapped a quick picture while it was still being quilted. 

 Luckily, my kids played nice so I was able to sneak in a few more minutes than I had planned on and was able to get it all trimmed up. I'm not going to push my luck by even thinking about the binding tonight.  And here it is! The pictures are just from my phone so they aren't spectacular, but at least in this picture you can see that the fabric is hot pink and not a weird red color like the picture above shows. 

 My mom has been working on hers too, which is a very cute light grey herringbone pattern and white. She's making hers into a baby size, just 9 blocks total. I can't wait for her to get her binding on, it will really make the quilt with the darling fabric that she's chosen. Here it is pre-quilting...

And here it is post-quilting! Don't you love it? The backing is so cute, perfect for a baby girl. The binding will make it even better.

As excited as I am to have finished up this quilt, I am even more excited to start on the next one in the book. It's very cute! Feel free to follow my blog on bloglovin to see what we'll be quilting up next! 

I'm linking up at: Simply Retro Quilt Along, Sew Darn Crafty, Fabric Tuesday

WIP Wednesday

I've been sewing away this week, trying to make a dent in all the projects I have. But of course, as I write this, I am debating about going to do some more fabric shopping today (why do I do this to myself?)  I should probably just stay home and finish these all up. ;)

This is just the start of the next quilt in Camille Roskelley's new book Simply Retro. The quilt is titled Retro. I'm going to try to get at least the top pieced  by next week so I can link it up with Jana's quilt along. 

I've been itching to finish up these perfect summer baby quilts using Lucy's Crab Shack prints. I've made a boy version in blues and oranges and am starting on a girl one in pinks and greens. 

And lastly, I am looking for 5 inch squares for an i-spy quilt. I've seen some cute quilts made but I've never actually cared to make one for myself until just a few weeks ago. I had taken my kids with me to a few of the shops in the shop hop and they were giving kids a little square of fabric to collect for a quilt. Of course this got my boys all excited and they decided this would be one of their summer goals; to collect the fabrics and to piece the quilt all together. I figure I should take advantage of their enthusiasm to spend time with me while they still are interested (plus give them a reason to not complain when I drag them to fabric shops). I ended up buying some fabrics at a few of the shops and then I ordered some more on etsy but figured this is going to get expensive fast if I am only using up 5 inches of each print. So if anyone wants to do a little swap-a-roo of a few fabrics that would be awesome. 

I'm linking up today at: Freshly Pieced

A few works in progress

It has been slow around here for sure. We've had a ton of fun things going on; a family trip, kindergarten graduation, all of the end of the school year madness, kids home from school now; as well as some not so fun things (that I won't even mention). Not only has it been slow here, but it's been pretty slow in my sewing room as well. I finally got a little sewing time last night and it was a blast.

I'm working on a baby quilt, actually two baby quilts. A boy version and a girl version of a pattern that I kinda made up on my own. It's actually pretty simple, so don't be too impressed.

Also, I finally started my Swoon quilt! I am so excited for this first block that I just finished. I've had the pattern and the fabric for a while now, but I have been putting it off. I shouldn't have though because it wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be. So yay!!  I might not sleep for a week now so I can finish it up, but hey, it will sure be worth it.

 I knew the swoon blocks were big but once I put the blocks up next to each other I realized exactly how big. You can see just how huge the swoon block is. It measures 24 inches square. The smaller block was made with charm packs so that gives you an even better idea of the size. 

I have a hard time just sticking to one project at a time but I really am trying to get these done so I can have some fun finishes to show soon. Am I the only one who skips from project to project before finishing them?

Linking up at: freshly pieced WIP wednesday

Hobby Turned Business

I thought I'd show you my long arm quilting machine. It's a Statler Stitcher by Gammill.  My daughter and I bought it originally for our hobby of quilting. We used it so much that we ran out of our own quilts pretty quickly so we started quilting for other people and it soon became a business. We've enjoyed making friends with our customers and doing the long arm quilting for all of their beautiful quilts.   

The nice thing about having the Statler is being able to select from thousands of patterns available. The patterns are all adjustable to fit the quilt perfectly.  We're able to customize each and every quilt. The stitching on the Statler is very precise to ensure quality quilting. This picture is the underneath side of the quilt. It's fun to watch the patterns take shape as the machine is quilting. 

 My current project is a custom baby quilt featuring these cartoon circus animals.  I bought this as a kit a few years ago and just recently pulled it out to piece it.  I had forgotten how cute these little animals were. I think I'll tuck it away until the next grandbaby boy comes along. 

Also I wanted to remind you all that we are still offering 20% off all of our long arm quilting services through the end of May. Email us at chocolatedippedquilts@gmail.com for more information or with any questions. 

I'm linking up at: WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

A Few Finishes

This week I was able to get the quilting and binding done on these two quilts. This one was a kit that I purchased a few years ago while from a shop hop here in the area. I purchased a kit for me and my daughters at the time but I think I may be the only one who has finished it up.  

This next quilt I also purchased as a kit a while back (see I told you I am working on my stash). I hung it up in my sewing room to take a picture and I love it, so I think it will stay. 

Two quilts done, only a bazillion more to go to clear some of my stash! I'm going to have to posts pictures sometime, it might shock you how much I really have. In fact my daughter sent this to me last night, only she said I may already be there. Ha! 

 Don't forget that today is the last day to enter our giveaway.

I'm linking up at: Finish it up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts.

Jack and Jill

My goal this year is to finish up some of my stash quilts. I bought this pattern and fabric about a year ago. I liked it so much, I bought fabric to make it up in a boy version as well as a girl version. As you can see, I have made some head way on the boy quilt, I just need to finish the prairie point border, add the ric rac and the sail boats. Quilt it, bind it, and move on to Jill, the girl version. 

 This is a fun pattern and sews up quickly. I love how playful the pinwheels look with the bright colors.  The Jill quilt is made up of soft pinks and greens with a tad of yellow. 

 This has been a great pattern to work with. I highly recommend it for your next baby quilt. Pattern is called Jack & Jill by KariePatch Designs. 

Our giveaway is still going on. Don't forget to enter!

I'm linking up at : WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced